Comparison of higher-order aberrations between eyes with natural supervision and highly myopic eyes in Koreans.

Purpose: To describe the characteristics and investigate the differences of higher-order aberrations (HOAs) between the eyes with a natural, uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) of 20/12 and eyes with highly myopic eyes in Korean adults.

Methods: Thirty-one eyes of 20 subjects with UCVA of 20/12 (Group 1) and 54 eyes of 36 myopic patients with greater than -6 diopters (Group 2) were analyzed for type and magnitude of HOAs across a 6.0 mm pupil. HOAs were measured by Wavescan (VISX, Santa Clara, CA, USA) in natural scotopic conditions and were presented as root-mean-square (RMS: microm) in Belle aberration maps.

Results: The mean spherical equivalent (SE) of manifest refraction was -0.15+/-0.25 D (range: +0.37 to -0.50 D) in Group 1 and -7.25+/-0.78 D (range: -6.00 to -9.25 D) in Group 2. The total root-mean-square (RMS) values of HOAs for Group 1 and Group 2 were 0.28+/-0.09 microm and 0.27+/-0.087 microm, respectively (P>0.05). The mean values of coma, trefoil, and spherical aberration were 0.14+/-0.091 microm, 0.14+/-0.089 microm, 0.091+/-0.059 microm in Group 1 and 0.16+/-0.077 microm, 0.14+/-0.073 microm, 0.082+/-0.059 microm in Group 2, respectively.

Conclusions: This study helped establish ocular aberration standards for those with natural supervision and those with highly myopic eyes among Koreans. Individuals with natural supervision had significant amounts of HOAs, and there was no significant difference in the amount of HOAs between the two groups. The index of higher-order aberrations may not be a perfect predictor of the amount of refractive error.